PCB Chairman and officials to be grilled at meeting

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports has summoned the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman along with the national team coaches, manager and the chief selector for a hearing on October 11 to discuss the disastrous England tour.

"The hearing is being held to review the performance of the team in England, the controversies that took place in England and the way the Pakistan Board has handled things so far," Iqbal Muhammad Ali, Chairman of the Committee, said.

He said the committee has also summoned the legal advisor of the board Tafazzul Rizvi along with the Board Chairman Ijaz Butt, manager Yawar Saeed, coaches Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Ijaz Ahmed and chief selector Mohsin Khan.

"The committee wants to know the reasons for the shoddy performances and also how the Pakistan team got entangled into such serious controversies. We also want to know the reason for Butt's statement against the England board and his U turn and to review the selection process," he said.

Iqbal said the committee members were concerned over the continued refusal of the board to recall former captain Younis Khan to the team.

"We want to know the reason for why Younis is being constantly ignored when all the other players who were disciplined after the Australian tour have been brought back into the team.

"We want to ask the Chairman to explain what crime has Younis committed that he (Butt) is not willing to give clearance to the selectors to pick Younis.”

Iqbal said he personally felt that it was time after the controversial tour to England for the Board to bring back Younis as Test captain for the upcoming series against South Africa.

"He is the best choice to lead Pakistan."

Iqbal also said that the committee members wanted to review the performance of manager Saeed who has now stepped down.

"We want to be absolutely sure that in future the board appoints a manager who is very strict and disciplined and will not tolerate the sort of things that took place in England and led to the spot fixing allegations against us that have damaged the image of Pakistan cricket," he said.

He said the committee also wanted to know the future plans of the Board in different areas and what was going to happen to the three suspended players, Salman Butt, Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif.